The 7 Rituals
Calming practices that help bring more harmony into your day.
Ikigai is about experiencing your essence and purpose in harmony with whatever you do.
Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash
Days filled with stress, anxiety, and worry separate us from the harmony required to live out our Ikigai.
Here are 7 rituals of calmness that you can practice to help bring more harmony into your day.
Today I’m going to list all seven and go into more detail about each in this and subsequent posts.
The 7 Rituals
These rituals will help you cultivate an attitude of calmness:
A calm morning.
Observe your response.
Take things without judgment.
Express gratitude.
Create stress coping habits.
Mono-task.
Reduce noise.
A Calm Morning
Photo by Candice Picard on Unsplash
I wake up easing into the morning, rarely waking up to an alarm1. When I use an alarm there is ample time built in so I can perform my standard practice without rushing to do it.
I lay in bed, centering my thoughts. I take a moment to pray, express gratitude, and set my intention for the day.
Slowly getting up from bed, I avoid any sudden movements or rush. Some days I stretch first others, I start writing. It isn’t so important the specific thing you do as how you do it.
Many days I take a moment to walk outside and connect to the ground observing whatever is going on. Warm weather or cold I will do this to sync up with the start of the day. I turn on the espresso machine and allow it to warm up, nothing is a rush.
It doesn’t have to be my ritual it can be whatever you want it to be with the idea to be present and calm.
Try doing one thing tomorrow morning to start your day off in a state of calm.
If you have to wake to an alarm clock look for one like a sunrise clock that allows you to ease into being awake.
I love this practice. Upon awakening, I would go over what I was grateful for years. More recently I wake up without an alarm. My life has tremendously changed in the past year. This is a great ritual to start the day!
Have a lot of the same practices!! The first 10 minutes of my day is “checking my inbox”. Laying still for the first 10 mins of the day to see what my brain came up with while I slept. Let it fully archive the previous day and see if it came up with any creative solutions to any current challenges or questions I have. It’s so simple but SO incredibly powerful. From there I get ready for a walk, meditate for 10-15 mins, then hit the pavement with my pup, Walter for a 20 min walk in the ‘hood’. Everything is planned. Nothing is rushed. It’s amazing.